BMJ  2008;336:962 (26 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.39559.547118.94

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X ray specs

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The back pages of Marvel comics used to have advertisements for "Dynamic Tension" so you could achieve the body of Charles Atlas "in just two weeks," "magic" insoles that made you taller than adults, and "amazing" x ray spectacles that allowed the wearer to see through people’s clothes (a truly horrifying thought). A friend bought a pair but found just a scantily clad lady painted on the inside of the lenses—it was just a scam. At medical school I took a certificate in radiology legislation, which made it clear that x ray specs would be not only pointless but downright dangerous.

Recently, anxious patients have attended my clinic clutching cut-out advertisements for amazing computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). I investigated some of the claims on imaging websites:"Anyone who smokes more than 10 cigarettes per day should consider annual CT lung scans," "Screening can mean that incurring a . . . [Full text of this article]

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